But Walloons argue that this marriage can be saved, and they resent being portrayed by Flemish politicians as incompetents. Yet even in Wallonia, politicians concede it might be time to explore the idea of making it on their own.
It would be too easy to conclude that either region's grievances are rooted in practical matters such as differing unemployment rates (Wallonia is at 14% and Flanders at 5%) and inheritance taxes (it's cheaper to die in Flanders).
Resentments date back to the founding of Belgium in 1830, when French was fatefully imposed as the official language on a Flemish majority. By the first half of the 20th century, the French-speaking elite dominated by denying Flemings many basic rights such as an education in their own language. During World War I, Flemish soldiers were sent into battle by French-speaking officers, and many died because they didn't understand their orders.
Bourgeois looks upon those deaths as a turning point when "in the trenches, common Flemings united with Flemish intellectuals and became aware of their discrimination and the injustice of the whole situation."
Belgian identity lost further ground in the 1960s when the steel- and coal-based industries of Wallonia, which had long fueled the national economy and Francophone power, petered out. The wealthy Walloons lost everything, and instead of forcing painful economic reform, they relied on the growing economic prowess of Flanders, now a center of high-tech and international business.
With Flemish activists agitating for increased parity, a formal linguistic border was established through constitutional reform in 1970, and Belgium was formally divided three ways among Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. From then on, everything that had been shared was divvied up.
That included Leuven University.
Thierry Brassine attended the newer, Francophone campus in the 1970s and never mixed with a Fleming. "It's only when I started working," he admits, "that I encountered many Dutch- speakers." One was Anne Van Asbroeck, a lively translator who spoke elegant Dutch, French, even English. They both got jobs at the Brussels regional parliament when it was established in 1989.
All of Belgium was supposed to be like the marriage of Van Asbroeck and Brassine.
